Trump, Still Banned From Twitter, Says He Won't Return After Musk Buyout
It's still unclear if Trump would be allowed back on Twitter.
President Donald Trump was banned from the social media site after the deadly riot on Capitol Hill "due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter said.
Former President Donald Trump says he won't return to Twitter, the platform he was banned from following the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection, but instead he'll use his own Truth Social network to reach his fans. Trump made the comments to Fox News on Monday following news that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had struck a deal to purchase the social media network for $44 billion.
It's unclear whether he would be allowed to return to Twitter following a change in ownership.
Twitter had been one of Trump's most effective ways of connecting with his followers. The social media site permanently banned Trump after the deadly Capitol Hill riot on Jan. 6, 2021, "due to the risk of further incitement of violence," Twitter said. The ban ultimately led him to create his own social media company, Truth Social, though he hasn't used it to communicate yet.
"I am not going on Twitter, I am going to stay on Truth," Trump said to Fox News. "I hope Elon buys Twitter because he'll make improvements to it and he is a good man."
Musk's deal to buy Twitter has raised speculation the company would loosen moderation policies. The executive, who also runs the SpaceX rocket company, has called himself a free speech absolutist. In a press release, Musk said that Twitter is a "digital town square" and that "free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy."
Protection of free speech, under the First Amendment, applies only to the government censoring speech.
Truth Social got off to a buggy start when it launched in February, though it still topped Apple's charts for free apps during the week of its release. Potential users were put on waiting lists and a pair of top executives left the company, which is led by Devin Nunes, a former congressman and Trump supporter.
Musk has indicated that he wants to loosen Twitter's content moderation policies, clamp down on cryptocurrency scams and bots, add an edit button and open-source the service's algorithm.